Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Letting Go

I am slowly letting go of my fears and believing that each of my children have an innate desire to learn. If I allow them to nurture their interests, at their own speed, without expectations but while still providing support and encouragement, I believe they will flourish. I truly do. This is not to say that I still don't worry. I do. But, each day as I let myself trust them more and as I stop more to listen to them - really listen - I get the joy of sharing in their interests.

Here is a quick round-up of what the older three children are currently up to:

Nolan, at 18, is applying to Christian colleges and wants to study Theology. He reads and reads and reads some more. He is also a musician, plays the electric guitar. He has a sound cloud account.

Isaac is 15 and is really into computers. He can take apart and build computers from parts he gets at recycling. He also plays around with movie making. Right now he is really into Minecraft and has been doing quite a bit of programming to make his own worlds and such. Here is one of his downloaded schematics.

Abby, at 13, it also utilizing computers, specifically the internet, to even earn money doing what she enjoys. She has figured out how to monetize her youtube channel and is awaiting her first check from google.

It is really kind of funny how our family moved to rural northern Vermont to attempt to lead a more low-tech hands-on life, but all of our children have a strong interest in high tech. Probably not surprising at all, considering that we earn our living through online sales.

2 comments:

Oh I totally get all of this. It is hard to let go but so rewarding to do so. Have you found the Christian Unschooling site?I wrote a post on there oddly enough with the same title ... http://www.christianunschooling.com/letting-go-our-journey-to-unschooling/

We live in a high tech world don't we. And like you say, it's technology and online sales that allow you to live where and how you do.

Our family is gearing up for a very low tech adventure - hiking for 6 months, yet, in order to do that we have be working, with technology, almost all our waking hours. And preparing the technology that will support us financially, while hiking.

One thing I've learned, or am trying to learn about technology, internet, video games etc is that is not a good or bad equation. This thing is good or this thing is bad. Technology is a tool and it's how we use it that matters. xo,Renee